This invention relates to a T-shirt printing apparatus, and more particularly, a manual or semi-automatic printing apparatus which is suitable for production of T-shirts with relatively small number (amount) but many or various kinds.
In general, T-shirt printing is conducted by two methods, one being the transfer printing method and the other is the direct printing method.
T-shirt printing apparatus of this invention is for the direct printing method. In direct printing method, three kinds of inks have been generally used, the emulsion, the plustisol and the expansion ink. Each ink requires the heat treatment or at least drying after the printing operation.
To be more specific, conventionally, T-shirt printing operation by direct printing method is conducted as follows. Primarily, a T-shirt is mounted on a T-shirt mounting plate. Subsequently print screens provided with desired patterns or illustrations thereon are superposed on the T-shirt mounting plate and are pressed to the T-shirt, thus effecting the original printing. Thereafter the T-shirt is removed from the T-shirt mounting plate and is subject to a drying operation by a suitable drying apparatus usually located remote from the printing apparatus, thereby completing the printing operation. However, in the above conventional printing operation, a considerable amount of time is spent before subjecting the T-shirt to drying or heat treatment after the original printing, thus making the entire printing operation including such drying inefficient.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus which can fully utilize the above waste time for a specific purpose, and more specifically, for drying and/or heat-treatment purpose, thus enabling the sufficient heat-treatment of T-shirts during the rotation thereof, resulting in the drastic shortening of the entire printing operation.